New Professional Baseball Code of Conduct Makes Posting of Porn in Public Places Against the Rules

July 17, 2013

Major League Baseball is coming out, swinging. The professional baseball league produced a new Code of Conduct to better guard against homophobia on the field and in locker rooms. The announcement was made yesterday in conjunction with the New York State Attorney General’s office and the MLB Players Association. Among the more sensible rules stipulated: No more posting of porn in public places, and be careful who you play grab-ass with.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, and MLBPA Executive Michael Weiner trotted out the new code of conduct at Citi Field just ahead of the 2013 All-Stars game.

Schneiderman, a reliable font of soundbite-ready quotes, said that “by making a clear stand against discrimination in the workplace, our National Pastime is showing national leadership in the fight to promote equal justice for all.”

Selig made a similar argument for instituting the new rules, stating that as a “social institution”, professional baseball ought to reflect the values and diversity of the communities it draws together.

With the new rules, baseballs continues to lead professional men’s sports in confronting homophobia on and off the field. The MLB beat everyone else to the punch when it inserted sexual orientation non-discrimination clause into its collective bargaining agreements in 2011.

But unlike the NBA, which turned itself inside out over the revelation that middling center Jason Collins was gay, or the global soccer community’s convulsions over now-L.A. Galaxy player Robbie Roger’s coming out, MLB has had no current player publicly acknowledge his sexual orientation.

With pro sports’ culture of hysterical machismo waning, MLB is creating a space for gay athletes to move out into the open. And mandating that players stop posting porn in public places–enough of a problem to warrant specific mention by the Attorney General’s Office–seems like a good place to start.

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